Arsenic poisons Pier Stream
TERA CAMUS
Cape Breton Bureau

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Whitney Pier

Extreme levels of arsenic found in a brook on Frederick Street this week have residents and government officials scrambling to protect children and pets from getting poisoned.
The federal government measured arsenic levels at 222.1 parts per billion in samples taken a month ago. The acceptable level is 15.2ppb.
Environment Canada officials showed up at the doors of several homes Thursday night to warn residents. The brook is known for attracting kids in summer.
"All I could think about is that this stuff kills," resident Debbie Ouelette said Friday.
I was scared, shaken and worried about my kids. I couldn't sleep and cried most of the night."
Tests also revealed unacceptable levels of metals such as molybdenum and boron as well as sulphur.
It was only a week ago that Frederick Street residents took their concerns over air pollution from a nearby cleanup of the toxic coke ovens site to the Joint action Group on Environmental Cleanup.
That group, funded by all three levels of government, agreed to study their claims and get back to them.
But this latest news has Ms. Ouelette terrified her children and pets will accidentally get poisoned from the brook, just three metres away from her back door.
"I couldn't sleep for most of the night. This morning at 8 o'clock, I sat the three kids down at the kitchen table and begged them not to go near the brook," she said as tears rolled down her face.
Just a week ago, the brook overflowed its two-meter bank to fill most of her yard.
"Our dog Quinny ... we can't put her outside by herself because she doesn't know the brook is poisoned. Ask me if I can rest or sleep at night knowing every day ... worrying our kids could get poisoned in our own backyard."
All of Ms. Ouelette's shrubs and plants in the yard are dying. A few sparse leaves or brown pine needes are hanging on young trees. Lilac bushes that are in bloom everywhere else in the area are mere twigs sticking out of the earth in her yard.
The brook, with it's clear water, runs parallel to rail tracks that border the toxic coke ovens site. Signs saying Human Health Hazard can clearly be seen on a wire fence in the distance.
Last month, Ms. Ouelette discovered a yellow patch of something oozing from the embankment by the rail tracks near the brook.
Environment officials took that yellow earth at the time. Just two days ago, a Devco rail car showed up and dumped a load of rock at the site.
Ms. Ouelette wonders whether the cleanup is actually a government coverup that she and other Frederick Street residents will pay for with their lives.
"We are sick. We are suffering severe headaches, sore throats, burning eyes and we feel like throwing up. Is our government going to wait until one of our kids is dead?"
Just last week, her neighbor caught what looked like a mouse in a trap but it was deformed with "funny looking ears and no tail," Ms. Ouelette said.
The only solution is to evacuate the families, she said.
"We don't have time anymore to wait ... when poison is right in our backyards. It's easy to say all the testing will be done, but what do we do in the meantime?"
JAG official Mike Britten said relocation is not in its jurisdiction.
"Right now, Environment Canada is taking the lead role. They are putting a team together. ...That team will initiate some signage and try to secure the site so that children and pets won't be playing in the brook."
Environment Canada says it has collected more samples from the soil to try to determine the sourse of the arsenic. Results should be ready in a few weeks.
Sydney-Victoria MP Peter Mancini said he will take the residents' concerns to the federal ministers of health and environment. He agrees action must be taken now.
"You ca't treat this site as if it's not a contaminated site."
Coal trucked from the coke ovens site has not been tested and a provincial public health risk assessment has not been conducted.
"What does it say in this country," Mr. Mancini said, "when we have both provincial and federal levels of government boasting a surplus in their budget and we have people who are living in unsafe environmental conditions."
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